The storm

Last week’s forecasts of an “epic winter storm” in the South had everyone in Kershaw County scurrying around trying to get prepared. Of course, it’s an old joke that if a few flakes of snow are forecast, Southerners flood grocery stores to stock up with milk and bread -- we’ve never quite understood why milk and bread -- and supermarkets in this area were indeed beehives of activity early last week as people prepared for possible power outages and periods of being homebound.

Fortunately, the storm wasn’t as bad as advertised. Some areas of the South were hit pretty hard, but here in Kershaw County, a few inches of snow and a light coating of ice provided little more than a fun few days for youngsters. Of course schools were closed, and making up those days will cause a problem, but there were few power outages, and no instances of people being trapped for long periods of time in their vehicles, as occurred a couple of weeks earlier in Atlanta.

Just south of Kershaw County, in the Wedgefield-Rimini area, the storms struck a more severe blow, with a significant number of trees being downed due to the weight of ice. And the Aiken area was apparently hit pretty hard, too. But it’s nice that here, a minimal amount of damage was done, and there was not a replay of some of the devastating ice storms of the past, such as the one that occurred in the winter of 1973, paralyzing the county for days.

Emergency officials were prepared here, and it’s good they did not have to resort to extreme measures. Kids had fun, people got a day or two off work and the snow was gone within a few days. It all added up to a minor inconvenience, and for that we should all be grateful.